Ceremonial - Kirby J - Welcome to Brisbane - CER

[1996] HCATrans 173

H I G H   C O U R T   O F   A U S T R A L I A

SPECIAL SITTING

WELCOME TO

THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE KIRBY, AC, CMG

AT

BRISBANE

ON

MONDAY, 17 JUNE 1996, AT 9.39 AM

KIRBY J

The following Judges were present:

Federal Court of Australia  Supreme Court of Queensland

The Hon. Justice Spender  The Hon. Mr Justice McPherson, CBE
The Hon. Justice Drummond                 The Hon. Mr Justice Davies
The Hon. Justice Cooper  The Hon. Mr Justice Pincus
  The Hon. Mr Justice Demack
  The Hon. Mr Justice Shepherdson
  The Hon. Mr Justice Ambrose

Family Court

District Courts of Queensland
The Hon. Justice Buckley
The Hon. Justice Jordan  His Honour Judge Boulton

Speakers:

Mr C.E.K. Hampson, AO, RFD, QC, President, Bar Association of Queensland

Ms J. Schafer, President, Queensland Law Society

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

HIS HONOUR:   Mr Hampson?

MR HAMPSON:   May it please the Court.  Your Honours of the different courts.  It is a great pleasure for me, on behalf of the Queensland Bar, to welcome your Honour Justice Kirby to your first sitting in Brisbane as a Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Your Honour is well known to all of us here today.  As you observed at your swearing-in in February, you are no novice.  Indeed, you have served in judicial office of various kinds for more than twenty-one years.  In fact, you have taken the judicial oath no less than ten times.  “Well and truly sworn”, to coin a phrase.

Your Honour’s outstanding career in the law has led to your appointment, the announcement of which was enthusiastically welcomed by the legal profession in this State.  Indeed, such is your Honour’s public profile that many Australians are aware of your achievements and your willingness to air opinions and viewpoints with insight, frankness and some degree of passion.

Your contribution to law reform through the Law Reform Commission, your interest in international law and your deep concern for human rights give your Honour a special place in the Australian legal community.

At your swearing-in as a Justice of this Court, your Honour observed that on occasions such as these, and I quote “very occasionally, wise counsel is given” - hopefully this is one of those rare occasions.  I can do no better than to ask your Honour to remember the prayer of counsel about to appear before a new judge.

“O may he let me feel comfortable in his court and offer me words of encouragement and praise;

May he let me speak first and may he listen without interruption;

May he not complain if I fail to take him to a relevant authority or to answer his probing question;

May he understand my world of strain and pressure, my need to remain calm and relaxed;

May he keep his court room a place of peace and order wherein I may renew my spirit in the warmth of his smile and wherein I may be well refreshed from day to day.”

I would commend that payer to your Honour for silent recitation in Court at appropriate times.

Your Honour’s gentlemanly demeanour, your intellectual integrity and ability and your dedication to the concept and practice of justice in this country and to human rights will make you an asset to the Court.

On behalf of the Queensland Bar, I wish your Honour a long and satisfying career on the High Court of Australia.

Your Honour is, and always will be, a welcome visitor to this State.

May it please the Court.

HIS HONOUR:   Thank you, Mr Hampson.  Ms Schafer?

MS SCHAFER:   On behalf of the solicitors of Queensland, I am pleased to welcome the High Court to this State.  It is a matter of considerable significance that the Court visits here.  It demonstrates more eloquently than words ever could, the importance of the Court, its relevance to this  State and its accessibility to the citizens of the State.  The justice system is enriched by your attendance and participation.

The solicitors of Queensland particularly congratulate your Honour Justice Kirby on your appointment to the Court and welcome you on this your first visit in that capacity to this State.  Like solicitors, your Honour has interacted extensively with the community we all serve.  I refer to your roles with the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the Australian Law Reform Commission, your interest in human rights, privacy rights and the right of the minority.  You are known as one who favours inclusivity.  You are most welcome and you have our deep expression of support.

HIS HONOUR:   Thank you, Ms Schafer.

Mr Hampson, Ms Schafer, your Honours, ladies and gentlemen. 

I would like, first of all, to thank both of those members of the Queensland legal profession, of the Bar and of the Solicitors’ branch, who have spoken and given me such a warm welcome.  I wish to express my special thanks to so many members of the Federal and State courts in Queensland who have attended this ceremony today to offer their friendship and support on this new step in my professional journey.  Indeed, I thank you all for attending. 

As has been said, I have been sworn to the judicial office and to my oath of allegiance on many occasions.  This is, I think, the tenth occasion on which I have been given a public judicial welcome of some kind or other.  My welcome to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales is captured in film and shows me with my hand over my mouth during the whole ceremony.  One United States Judge visiting me, seeing the photograph, said that studies of body language have shown that such a gesture demonstrates a total disbelief of everything that is being said.  Naturally, I have not had my hand near my mouth on this occasion.  But I have been renewing the warmth of my smile in preparation for compliance with the prayer which was read to me.  I will ensure that the prayer is seen by others who may have greater need of it.  Perhaps legal practitioners in the future will watch judicial hand gestures on Special Leave days in the High Court.

I have survived the 10 encomia that have been laid before me on these occasions only by living a life of searching self-criticism.  Mind you, in that path, I have occasionally been assisted by the helpful admonitions of others, including some occasionally given by judicial officers of this State.  Who, for example, will forget the assistance given to me in that regard by Connolly J. after my ABC Boyer Lectures in 1983 on “The Judges”.  Doubtless in a spirit of comity, his Honour offered a few comments, with his usual diffidence, under-statement and hesitation, as to my broadcast lectures and opinions.  I am glad that I have survived long enough in judicial life to enjoy the friendship of Connolly J, as of other Judges of this State.  It was my privilege to succeed him as the President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands where, for many years, with other Judges of this State, he performed sterling service, much valued and admired.  It is an important contribution to the rule of law in a neighbouring country of the common law in which the judiciary and legal profession in Queensland has played a leading part.

I am now in the sixth age of a legal life:  articled clerk; solicitor; barrister; Law Reform Commissioner; Judge of the Federal Court and of the State Supreme Court; Justice of the High Court.  Only the seventh age remains:  sans teeth, sans eyes , sans taste, sans everything.  I shall endeavour, with your vigilant assistance, to ensure that the sixth and the seventh ages do not overlap.

When I was sworn to the judicial oath for the first time in 1974, the Federal Court was not yet established.  The Family Court was about to be established.  None of the Judges of this State, except, I think, Demack J, were Judges at that time.  The Supreme Court of Queensland comprised 14 Justices and two Acting Justices.  The Chief Justice of the time was Sir Mostyn Hanger, whom I did not know.  The Senior Puisne Judge was Sir Charles Wanstall who was an elegant and kindly man whom I got to know quite well in the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.  Among the Judges of the Supreme Court at that time were Walter Campbell J, George Kneipp J, Edward Williams J and Andrews J, all of whom I came to know well and all of whom were later knighted by Her Majesty the Queen.  They were fine judicial mentors for us all.  They took a lively part in their community beyond the judicial role.

The members of the Council for Law Reporting at that time were the redoubtable Sir Arnold Bennett, QC, whose leadership at the Queensland Bar is told in Joan Priest’s book on the life of Sir Harry Gibbs; also Mr John Macrossan, then a member of the Bar (who has sent me good wishes for today), and Mr Cedric Hampson, forever green, youthful, and energetic (who has renewed our friendship by speaking for the Bar).  Times change.  That was 1974.  But over the years I have renewed, on many occasions, my associations with the Judges and members of the legal profession of this State.

My work in law reform led me to an early encounter with my Chief Justice, Brennan CJ, who was one of the foundation Commissioners of the Australian Law Reform Commission.  Fitzgerald P later became a Commissioner of that Commission.  He was to advance to most important contributions to law reform and to the judiciary in this State.  Many legal practitioners of this State helped in the work of the Australian Law Reform Commission.  I worked closely with Andrews J and with McPherson J (as they then were), and Professor Ryan, later Ryan J.  I am glad to see McPherson JA here today, with Demack J and others who participated in the Law Reform Commissions, federal and State, in the work of law reform. 

In the Solomon Islands I had the privilege to sit in January of this year with Glen Williams J who was a marvellous colleague and whose service there, with that of McPherson JA, is a wonderful example of the contribution of Queensland Judges and lawyers to the law in Solomon Islands.

In the Queensland Branch of the Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists I have worked with Spender J and several other judges, legal practitioners and academics whom I know and admire.  Both in Solomon Islands and in the High Court, and occasionally in the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, I have seen the leaders of the legal profession of this State.  Last week in Canberra the High Court saw arrayed before us the leaders of the Queensland Bar in the Wik Case.  The assistance and contribution of the Bar was the subject of favourable remarks at the end of the case offered, very rightly in my opinion, by the Chief Justice.

The High Court has been strengthened many times by the contribution of Justices appointed from this State.  The appointments of Griffith CJ, Powers J, Webb J, Gibbs CJ and Brennan CJ, have greatly strengthened the Court.  We sit in the No 1 courtroom in Canberra under the watchful eyes of Griffith CJ.  Preparing myself for this visit to Queensland I read the biography by Roger Joyce on the life of Griffith CJ.  One hundred and thirty years ago, in 1867, when he joined the legal profession of this State, there were but 100 legal practitioners.  On his first day he had no briefs and nothing to do.  So he read Jane Eyre.  Now, of course, a young legal practitioner beginning, with nothing to do, would, I am sure, read the pages of the Commonwealth Law Reports.  But I am not sure that day would be quite so pleasurable.

It surprised me to find that Griffith CJ was the subject of great controversy at the time of his appointment to the High Court.  Many, with their eyes on various positions in the Court, urged that Barton J should be appointed the central seat.  But Barton J deferred to the obvious merit and quality of that great Chief Justice who led the Court in its foundation.  Fortunate was the Court, and Australia, in that inspired selection.  Yet he came without generosity from the Commonwealth:  no pension, a salary lower than he was receiving as Chief Justice of Queensland, a dispute about circuits, and no typewriters were provided to him.  They were days of severe federal economy.  No doubt there was a large deficit to be dealt with.  But Griffith CJ left his stamp on the Court, as have the other Queensland Judges who have served.  Three of the ten Chief Justices of Australia have come from this State.  That is the same as New South Wales:  three out of ten.  Only Victoria, with four Chief Justices, ranks higher.

I think of my good fortune in life of serving in so many courts, gathering so many friends, all over the continent of Australia.  I was therefore concerned when, last week, I received from Rehnquist CJ in the United States his speech at a Commencement Ceremony in May 1996 at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC.  He detected, in young American lawyers, a growing malaise and discontent about a life in the law.  A recent survey by the Victorian Law Foundation showed a similar trend towards disillusionment in our own country.  When I reflect upon my own most interesting and varied life, and the many intellectual rewards which it has given me, I hope that we, in the Australian courts and in the law, can preserve that which is good, moving with the times into a new millennium, but ensuring the high level of professional satisfaction and professional endeavour that I have seen throughout my lifetime in the law.  From that internal satisfaction stems an enthusiasm and devotion to serve in the noble course of contributing to justice under the law for all of the people of Australia.  In many years of public service I have been privileged to know many in the law throughout Australia who have served devotedly that noble cause.  Not least in Queensland.  Not least in Brisbane.

I thank you all very much for coming to this ceremony today.  I realise, of course, that the words of praise that have been given and the compliment of your attendance is not simply directed to me but to the Federal Supreme Court of our nation which thanks you for sharing this occasion in Brisbane today.

The Court will now adjourn until 2.15 pm this afternoon when it will be re-constituted.

AT 9.53 AM THE COURT ADJOURNED